June 3, 2021
Pretty frequently, some new article will pop up online—written either by a Christian or a non-Christian—reminding the world that young people are leaving the Church in droves. If written by a Christian, the author will lament this fact and pose the question of what can be done to stop the mass exodus. If written by a non-Christian, they’ll probably celebrate this fact.
But young people aren’t the only ones abandoning the sinking ship of organized religion. Many prominent Christian leaders, authors, speakers, and even entertainers are now adopting the “exvangelical” moniker as well.
My first experience of this was when I was still a Christian. My church’s youth group relied a lot upon videos and material put out by Rob Bell. When Bell released his book Love Wins and began drifting away from what was considered acceptable Christian doctrine, the Christian community—my church included—was not too happy about it. I remember the youth pastors had to go through their office and purge anything and everything with Rob Bell’s name.
Here’s another. In 2019, Joshua Harris—author of the controversial book I Kissed Dating Goodbye—publicly announced that he was no longer a Christian. Not only that, he was removing his book from print and apologized for its use in purity culture teachings. The youth office at my old church had several copies of I Kissed Dating Goodbye on their bookshelf, available to loan out to any kids who were interested in reading it. I wonder if they’re still there.
More recently, Paul Maxwell, a writer for Desiring God, has announced that he, too, no longer considers himself a Christian.
And these are only the ones who voluntarily left their Christian platforms. The departure numbers increase dramatically when you factor in the people who have fallen out of favor with the wider Christian community, such as Josh Duggar.
These are only a few examples off the top of my head. There are plenty more. I think it’s a great thing when these prominent Christians and celebrity pastors publicly leave the faith. Why? Because the millions of churches and pastors across the world rely on these prominent Christians and celebrity pastors more than you might think.
Here are a few examples:
- Pastors oftentimes get ideas for their sermons and sermon series from prominent Christians and celebrity pastors that had success speaking on specific topics.
- Prominent Christians and celebrity pastors create Bible study packages which are then purchased by a church and distributed to the congregation for their small groups on Wednesday nights.
- Prominent Christians and celebrity pastors have the influence and audience to write books that massively impact the direction, thoughts, and attitudes of Christian culture as a whole.
- Big name Christian musicians write contemporary Christian music, which is then performed by local churches during their services.
The church is a business, and most businesses have a hierarchal structure. While a church business also has a clear hierarchal structure, the top of the pyramid extends a lot higher than the head pastor of any particular church. Much of what a head pastor decides for his church comes from people and companies that are even higher up on the totem pole than him.
As more and more of these prominent Christians and celebrity pastors leave the faith, the drier the well at the top becomes. There will be less and less influential Christian content disseminated down toward the bottom of the hierarchal pyramid, which contains all the average church-going individuals.
Institutions usually unravel from either the top or the bottom:
- If an institution unravels from the top, then the leader(s) at the top of the hierarchal pyramid either leave, get compromised, or are forcibly removed. A great example of this is Mars Hill Church. Once Mark Driscoll was removed, the entire church—which was more or less built around his teaching style and personality—crumbled.
- If an institution unravels from the bottom, the masses at the base of the pyramid either all leave at once or the numbers dwindle slowly over time and aren’t replaced by new ones. The base no longer supports the top and the whole structure crumbles. An example of this would be when a brand new, trendy church opens in a small town and poaches members from the old-school traditional church down the road. Before long, the old-school church is forced to close permanently after it loses too many tithing members.
Therefore, what’s happening to the overall Christian institution is a unique situation. There’s an unraveling from both the top and the bottom simultaneously, taking into account the aforementioned young people who are leaving the Church in droves or declining to get involved with religion in the first place (weakening the base of the hierarchal pyramid).
Because of this, I predict it won’t be very long before Christianity as a whole has dwindled into near obscurity. I don’t think it’ll completely go away in my lifetime, but it will definitely lose almost all of its relevance, becoming a shell of its former self.
As a side note, I think this is why we’ve seen an uptick in hostile and “non-Christlike” behavior from many Christians, including some of the remaining prominent Christians and celebrity pastors. They know they’re on a steep decline and they can sense the end of their influence rapidly coming, so they react and lash out. Nothing reveals their true natures quite like having their backs against the wall.